In a tough opening statement, M. Brewster Smith outlines his own
life course and contrasts it with the agenda of social psychology
in the present professional moment. "Today's journals, textbooks,
and conferences represent a vigorous but narrow scientific
specialty in psychology, the practitioners of which are more
closely focused on agendas that are primarily and often only
intelligible within the subdiscipline than was the case when I
formed my identity as a psychologist."
In contrast, Smith sees himself, and has long been seen by
others, as a social psychologist in the tradition of Gordon
Allport, Gardner and Lois Murphy, Kurt Lewin, and Muzafer Sherif.
Smith's unique ability has been to contribute to the emergence of
personality as a differentiated academic field and at the same time
maintain strong interdisciplinary ties to a variety of fields
ranging from sociology to philosophy. In recent years, such
concerns have made the author a central figure in the development
of Humanistic Psychology as a part of the American Psychological
Association.
Because of these wide ranging concerns, the major statements of
Brewster Smith have appeared in diverse places. Here, brought into
a unified and uniform frame of reference, one has his work on
values and selfhood, humanistic psychology and the social sciences,
and humanism and social issues brought together for the first time.
The picture is of a major thinker who is at home in the details of
psychology and in the broad areas of public interest and social
policy.
Brewster Smith discusses major issues in terms of the political
processes involved in the public interest. These range from the
issue of advocacy within social research to conceptualizing anew
familiar issues within psychology. For the generalist interested in
the broader meanings of social psychology to the specialist aiming
to recapture the big issues with which the field was once
identified, this is a must volume.
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